Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Crew members of the Rapids King, a steamship operated by the Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Company (Canada Steamship Lines after 1913). The middle decks of the ship are visible in the background. The photograph was taken by the photographic firm of Black and Bennett, 85 Bleury Street, Montreal. The Rapids King was built in Toronto in 1907 and was retired from service in 1931.

An article in the New York Times of 18 July 1921 describes the crew's rescue of passengers of this ship on the previous day, after its rudder chain was broken in the Long Sault Rapids en route from Prescott, Ontario, to Montreal, Quebec. It is possible that this picture was taken after this event.

Deseronto Hockey Team, 1911

Group portrait of a "Citizens' Band", ca. 1900

Metcalf Foods Ltd., Deseronto, ca. 1938

Staff of Shannonville Canning Ltd., Shannonville, Ontario, in September 1938

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Alice Austen (1866 - 1952) was one of America's earliest and most prolific female photographers, and over the course of her life she captured about 8,000 images. Though she is best known for her documentary work, Austen was an artist with a strong aesthetic sensibility. Furthermore, she was a landscape designer, a master tennis player, and the first woman on Staten Island to own a car. She never married, and instead spent fifty years with Gertrude Tate. A rebel who broke away from the ties of her Victorian environment, Alice Austen created her own independent life. [Alice Austen House]